He said he had showed a "most callous disregard" in laughing and smirking after he gunned down Mr Bidve and also during the trial.

"You have behaved in a way demonstrating that you are positively boastful about having killed Mr Bidve," he said.

Following the verdict, Mr Bidve's father Subhash said Stapleton had "openly laughed at the memory of our son".

His son had arrived in the UK to study micro-electronics at Lancaster University and was visiting Manchester with a group of friends last Christmas.

They left their hotel in Salford to queue early for the sales when their paths crossed with Stapleton's.

He calmly walked across the road and repeatedly asked for the time.

When someone finally answered, he pulled a handgun out of his pocket and fired one shot to Mr Bidve's left temple.

Stapleton told one psychologist in prison that he picked out his victim because "he had the biggest head", the court heard.

The day after the murder he booked into a hotel which overlooked the crime scene in Ordsall Lane and then later went to a tattoo parlour and had a teardrop design placed below his right eye - a symbol used by some gangs to mark that the wearer has killed someone.

After he was arrested and charged with murder, he made his first appearance at Manchester Magistrates' Court and gave his name as "Psycho Stapleton".

In a show of bravado, Stapleton told the jury during his trial that he "loved prison".

He said: "To be honest, I'm not bothered. I love prison. I watch Coronation Street. I have got a fat canteen. I love prison. Lock me up for 65 years."

Looking to the jury from the witness box, he added: "Does this face look bothered? I have even got a new rug and bedding coming for my cell. I'm not bothered."